Keep Trade Cut Dynasty Fantasy Football(Week 7)

Welcome to the Week 7 edition of Keep Trade Cut for your dynasty football leagues. In this series, we break down a handful of similarly ranked players for dynasty purposes. Each week, we’ll be using an outside source for dynasty rankings. This week we’re discussing the rebuilder’s favorite position to target, by examining three wide receivers under the age of 25. Will they reach that top 15 ceiling managers desire from young receivers, or do they settle in as flex options only for fantasy?

In dynasty football leagues, a player’s week-to-week viability factors directly into their value across the season. That can lead to volatile valuations from managers and surprising trades involving the assets trending up or down. Weekly during the 2023 season, we’ll look at a trio of players who are valued back to back to back. Each week we’ll use a different source. From those rankings, we’ll discuss whether the three similarly valued players should be considered worth keeping, trading, or “cutting”, them. No, you won’t be cutting these players in dynasty leagues, but that’s not the point of this scenario.

For this exercise, the keeper is a player who can sustain their value this current season and beyond. In other words, the player who should be valued most by managers or potential managers. The player worth trading is a player whose value may be buoyed by unsustainable volume, or is holding a level of value that may be more useful to move along in your team’s makeup. A “cut” in this scenario is a player who is trending down or has an outlook that could change quickly, therefore being seen as the least valuable currently in the trio.

This week, we’re taking another look at fantasypros.com. With that, let’s discuss their current WR50, WR51, and WR52 in dynasty leagues

Keep: Nathaniel Dell

Nathaniel “Tank” Dell has started his career with 324 yards on 19 catches for the Houston Texans, good for an astounding 17.05 yards per catch while scoring two touchdowns. Dell’s speed and secure hands should allow him to continue seeing good opportunities as one of emerging stars CJ Stroud’s top targets. Dell hasn’t seen much usage within the red zone, with only one of his 28 targets coming from inside the 20. However, as evidenced by his 10 and seven target outings in Weeks 2 and 3, Dell can perform for fantasy, finishing as a top 20 wide receiver in half PPR each of those weeks.

Dell is on his way to a breakout rookie season and managers who grabbed him in the late second or later are likely very happy with his early returns. As far as this article’s trio, he may have the most clear-cut opportunity to be a top-two option in the efficient Texans passing offense.

This is a trio of three youthful receivers, but when two of the teams have such a gameday emphasis on rushing, it’s easier for us to focus on a player in Dell who has seen the snap share early and produced. He has a role in the gameplan already and managers will continue to value him highly headed into next season, making him our clear keep at this time.

Trade: Josh Downs

Josh Downs as a trade candidate is likely an unsavory sight for his current managers. However, some of those managers may notice the opportunity to maximize the value of this asset. Downs, similar to Dell, has seen an encouraging amount of targets and snap share through 6 weeks of the NFL season. He has 28 catches on 41 targets, good for second on the Colts in both categories, only behind top receiver Michael Pittman.

Downs is a great slot wide receiver and figures nicely into the team’s long-term plans. Those are the positives for Downs, and he has plenty of value on dynasty rosters. However, this is a team still integrating Jonathan Taylor into the 2023 version of the offense and now just lost their starting quarterback for the season. Seeing how Downs manages this adversity will be key to his value heading into next season, and he did show encouraging signs in Week 6 with backup Gardner Minshew.

The Colts getting Taylor back and next year a healthy Anthony Richardson may skew this team more toward rushing and may make Downs managers wish they had moved on during this rookie surge. Downs could see a limited long-term ceiling in this offense. He isn’t currently and likely won’t ever be the top receiving option, and there are at least two rushing options the team will prefer to get touches to as they operate the offense. Managers may want to capitalize on his value now or soon, and not have it peter out over the next few seasons.

Cut: Elijah Moore

Things were going well for Elijah Moore’s managers this offseason. He received the new start managers wanted, he had a talented quarterback, and he even began the season with an encouraging amount of targets(25) through the first three games of the NFL season. Unfortunately for Moore, he hasn’t eclipsed more than 50 yards receiving in any contest, and despite having a nine-catch outing in Week 4, he has yet to reach double digits in points in any week, for half-PPR formats. It’s okay to be the target slot who gets first downs, and in cases like Cole Beasley and Wan’dale Robinson, we see how that usage can produce sparingly for fantasy.

The problem with Moore for fantasy is that he’s become a buy low that now isn’t producing with volume. The Browns need receiving options to step up behind Amari Cooper for any chance at playoff success, and Moore has had multiple opportunities early in the season. Yes, there are questions about Deshaun Watson’s play as well as health, and the team lost Nick Chubb for the season, but that seemingly hasn’t awakened Moore to the level he was at his rookie season for the Jets.

Dynasty managers with hope may be more keen to hold at this point, but this asset may be one you have to get out on at a severe loss rather than continue to believe. Moore is firmly the lowest value of this trio.

There it is, the always-exciting young wide receivers that dynasty managers love to build rosters with. It was a bit surprising to see such encouraging rookies Downs and Dell considered so closely with Elijah Moore for dynasty purposes. Unfortunately, Moore is very much third from this trio, due to his team’s offensive goals and his lack of production with his catered role. Moore didn’t succeed with his first team and is now seemingly in another difficult fantasy situation, proof that building around young wide receivers is a risky game that isn’t simply a trade away.

Just look at Kadarius Toney as another recent example. Dell and Downs are on a different trajectory, clearly going up both in their organizations and for fantasy purposes. This gives dynasty managers a couple of young names that may become good flex plays at the least, or in Dell’s case, a player who may be able to take a top role in his team’s offense.

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